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Subject: NYT Now: Your Wednesday Briefing
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View in Browser | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. Wednesday, June 24, 2015 Wednesday, June 24, 2015 nytnow.com » Enjoy this newsletter? The NYT Now app for iPhone is now completely free. It's the fastest way to catch up with the news throughout the day. Download now. A Polish soldier during a NATO exercise. The alliance meets today and Thursday, refocusing on Russia. Sean Gallup/Getty Images Your Wednesday Briefing By ADEEL HASSAN Good morning. Here's what you need to know: • Perceptions of terror. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people in the United States have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims, according to a new tally. And in the wake of the church killings in Charleston, S.C., a nationwide tide has turned against what many view as a symbol of white supremacy, the Confederate battle flag. • Changes in hostage policy. President Obama announces today that the government will no longer threaten criminal prosecution of the families of American hostages who are held abroad by groups like the Islamic State if they attempt to pay ransom for the release of their loved ones. • NATO refocuses on Russia. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter meets today and Thursday with other defense ministers in Brussels to discuss how to counter a resurgent Russia. It's a shift back to the alliance's original role, after years of reduced military spending. • Boston Marathon bomber sentencing. More than 30 victims of the Boston Marathon bombing are expected to address the court before a judge formally sentences Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, to death. Mr. Tsarnaev will also be given a chance to speak. • A longer list of presidential hopefuls. Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is expected to join the race for the Republican presidential nomination this afternoon. He would become the first Indian-American to seek the presidency. • Spying on the French? President François Hollande of France says reports of American spying are "unacceptable," and he meets today with top ministers and army commanders to discuss the allegations. WikiLeaks published documents that it says show the National Security Agency eavesdropped on the past three French presidents. • "It's so hot that I can barely speak." That's what one Pakistani man told the BBC as the death toll in a heat wave surpassed 800 today and mortuaries became filled to capacity. The government struggles to deal with the shortages of water and electricity that have worsened the impact of the heat wave. • Clear path to passage. The Senate is expected to grant President Obama fast-track trade-negotiating authority today, after a procedural vote on Tuesday. MARKETS • The U.S. economy may not have been as bad as first thought in the first quarter. The Commerce Department releases its revised gross domestic product estimate today, most likely raising it from the 0.7 percent contraction reported last month. • The U.S. homeownership rate, which has been falling for eight years, is down to 63.7 percent from a peak of over 69 percent in 2004, according to a report out today. The number of renters is increasing. • Ford is joining the car-sharing movement. It says it will pilot a program in six U.S. cities and in Britain for Ford owners to rent out their cars, S.U.V.s or trucks when they are not using them. • Sysco's proposed $3.5 billion merger with US Foods, joining the country's two biggest food distribution companies, is off indefinitely. A federal judge's decision to halt the merger is a victory for the Federal Trade Commission, which said the deal would lead to higher prices and worse service. • Wall Street stock futures are falling after gains on Tuesday, when the Nasdaq index hit a record. European shares are also declining. Eurozone finance ministers convene tonight in Brussels over the Greek debt crisis, in advance of a European Union two-day emergency summit meeting that begins on Thursday. In Asia, most shares advanced. The Nikkei stock index closed at an 18-year high. NOTEWORTHY • Rainbow milestone. The Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village bar where resistance to a police raid touched off the modern gay rights movement, is now a New York City landmark. It is the first time a site has been named primarily because of its significance in gay history. Separately, President Obama hosts a reception today at the White House in recognition of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. • What's on. All nine seasons of "Seinfeld," (that's 180 episodes) become available today on Hulu, the online video streaming service. • The good life. Panama finished at the top, again, of an annual ranking of "well-being" released today, while Afghanistan ranked last. The U.S. ranked 23rd of 145 countries, territories and areas tracked by the Gallup-Healthways Global Well-Being Index, down from 12th place a year earlier. BACK STORY On Tuesday, the French husband-and-wife firm Moreau Kusunoki Architectes won a competition to design a Guggenheim museum in Helsinki, Finland. It is part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's effort to add to its museums in New York, Venice and Bilbao, Spain. A museum is also scheduled to open in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, in 2017. So how does a museum get the honor of calling itself a Guggenheim? The foundation gets about a dozen requests each year from cities that want a franchise, seeking the same benefits that Bilbao has experienced. The Basque region attracts nearly a million visitors a year now, compared with fewer than 100,000 before the Guggenheim opened there in 1997. Not every Guggenheim partnership lasts forever. The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas closed in 2008, and the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin was open for 15 years. Guggenheim plans didn't work out for Taiwan, Rio de Janeiro and Guadalajara, Mexico. It isn't an easy sell in Helsinki, either. A local board rejected the project in 2012, partially over the $30 million licensing fee for the Guggenheim name, but says it will reconsider it now that a final design has been selected. Victoria Shannon contributed reporting. Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated on the web all morning. What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes.com. Want to get the briefing by email? Here's the sign-up. 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